The second show that went into production was "The Sphinx" which didn't go to air until late in the run for some reason. I based this design partly off sketches that Illustrator Everett Peck faxed through, and the hideous creature behind the mask was based off a sketch by Executive Producer Richard Raynis (I'll post that art at a later date). I have my own fascination with masks that I brought to the creature.

I was going to do my own version of the Riddle of the Sphinx story for an X-Files fan fiction entitled "The Riddle" and feature it like a slasher film. We don't actually see the monster until much later. And the voice of the Sphinx is female in my story. Good work! I envisioned the story back when X-Files was in its heyday, but now that the show is over, I thought I'd bring it to the modern world with Scully and Mulder now working apart from the FBI. I knew the answer to the riddle from the XGB, having read the story of Oedipus and how he came to Thebes.

"What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?""Man!""Nope.""A dancing bear?""Nuhuh.""Then what?""That thing over there."*points to hideous monster with legs coming out of its wazoo*

Oh that was the intention? Very nice. I was originally going to ask why you didnt put more greek design choices on the sphinx but then I remembered that the Greeks were influenced by the Egyptians. Also I dont really know any ancient greek design motifs so its a moot point.

The riddle story came from a Greek myth, so I was attempting to link the Greek connection through the mask and the Ancient Egyptian connection through the head scarf tentacle things. The script had more to do with the Greek Sphinx than the Egyptian original.

Extreme Ghostbusters, Godzilla and MIB were all created at Columbia Tristar where I and my two companies worked from 1995 to 2000. An employee from my American studio was responsible for the alien designs for MIB.

Sometimes the writers bothered to do research, sometimes they didn't. It was hit and miss, we tried to spice up a bad script with cool designs and that's all we could do. I was disappointed that they used the classic Ancient Greek riddle rather than coming up with their own "modern" version.

"What's green and red and goes round and round and round?"Sphinx was unable to solve it in the book)Answer is "A frog in a Cuisinart", though I like the variant from russian translation [a watermelon in a meat grinder] more.

Oh god, I saw this as a kid and it existed feverishly in the back of my head as what sphinxes were for years, and I was so mad when I looked them up later and couldn't find anything on them stealing faces. BUT IT'S WHAT THEY DO IT'S THEIR THING! (Also yeah, for some reason I remembered it as being an episode of the old series and stealing each of the characters' faces one by one. I don't know.)So, thank you for culturing one of my childhood monsters! Seriously, it was a great one.

I hinted at the historical Greek sphinx being female through the mask. I hinted at the Egyptian origins through the tentacle-like head dress. Everett's designs were distinctly male. My first designs were more monstrous, but I was encouraged to go along a more traditional route. I would have loved to have pushed the design even further.

I think the incongruous female face is what started off my "it must have stolen the face" line of logic. The end result was a nice sort of Zeiram thing, but now I'm really curious to see what your other takes were!

Nice design. I like the mask. Though the creature behind the mask felt very random to me when I was watching the show as a kid. But the idea of the Sphinx was awesome.

Also, when I was young, I thought the enigma was clever (what creature walks on 4 legs, then 2, and finally 3?), but then, when growing up, I understood how basic it was. Compare that to E.Nigma puzzles from Batman TAS, and you see a clear difference. Though, in that case, it was a lot of word-play which didn't translate in other languages. ^^"

The idea of the Sphinx feeding off intellectual people was really great, but as a lot of XGB creatures, I wish it was something bigger. For example, an episode where the GB team actually goes to Egypt to investigate on a tomb where people discovered another underground layer of tunnels under it, with minor ghosts in it, and they bring back the Sphinx with them without knowing.

The thing behind the mask was based off a sketch Richard did, I thought it was so left field that it made me laugh, so I just used it unchanged rather than interpreting it. You see the "face" for such a short time that it didn't seem to matter, just needed to be unexpected. Also I was really rushed for time during this production and it worked for shock value, so it went in.

As I said above I thought reusing the classic Greek riddle was lazy. I'd known the answer since I was a kid because I'd read all of those myths.